Thames walk
(17 Sep – 17 Oct 2023)
From 17 September until 17 October 2023, we will walk 350 kilometres from the source of the Thames in the Cotswolds to its mouth in the North Sea. During the walk, we will engage with local people, school children, farmers, fishermen, teachers, rowers, journalists, politicians, environmentalists and many more, and share our vision of a world with drinkable rivers. Every day we’ll monitor the water quality of the Thames with children and stay with locals who welcome us in their homes.
We look forward to meet you along the way!
Li An and Maarten
Join the walk
Everyone is invited to join the walk for a day (or two). You can just show up or give us a heads up and register. We will aim to start around 9:00 am at the starting points as indicated below. Please double check one day in advance whether we expect any changes.
During the walk, we will measure the water quality of the Thames as part of our ongoing citizen science research project. We welcome everyone to participate in measuring the water quality of the Thames with us. Especially teachers and children are heartily invited. Please reach out to us via info@drinkablerivers.org.
Rather than staying in B&B’s, we prefer to stay with local people along the river so we can engage more with the Thames community. We have done so earlier along the Meuse and the IJssel and this turned out to be wonderful. If you would like to welcome us in your home, please reach out to us via info@drinkablerivers.org.
Walk and Dates
September
17 – Source of the Thames, Kemble. Opening ceremony and picknick. Starts at 12:00.
18 – Church Lane, Ashton-Keynes to Castle Eaton Bridge
19 – Castle Eaton Bridge to Buscot Lock
20 – Buscot Lock to The Trout at Tadpole Bridge
21 – The Trout at Tadpole Bridge to Bablock Hythe
22 – Bablock Hythe to Osney Bridge, Oxford
23 – Events in Oxford (no walking)
24 – Osney Bridge, Oxford to Abingdon
25 – Rest day
26 – Bridge Street, Abingdon to Dorchester
27 – Days Lock, Dorchester to Goring & Streatley
28 – Goring & Streatley Bridge to Reading Bridge
29 – Reading Bridge, Reading to Henley-on-Thames
30 – Events in Henley-on-Thames (no walking)
October
01 – River& Rowing Museum, Henley-on-Thames to Cookham
02 – Rest day
03 – Ferry Lane Bridge, Cookham to Windsor
04 – Windsor & Eton Bridge to Laleham
05 – Ferry Lane, Laleham to Hampton Court Bridge
06 – Hampton Bridge Court to Kew Bridge
07 – Kew Bridge to Chelsea Bridge
08 – Chelsea Bridge to Greenwich Pier
09 – Events in London (no walking)
10 – Rest day
11 – Greenwich Pier to Thames Barrier
12 – Thames Barrier to Erith
13 – Erith Pier to Greenhithe
14 – The Pier Hotel, Greenhithe to Lower Higham
15 – Church Street, Higham to Allhallows
16 – Slough Fort, Allhallows to Isle of Grain (North Sea)
17 – Closing event (in London 4-7PM, no walking)
Events
Join the walk and Citizen Science measurements
Sep 21st 2 PM
Maybush pub, Newbridge
Book launch and film screening
Sep 23rd 5:30 PM
Vaults & Garden,
Oxford High Street
Citizen science, film + Q&A
Sep 24th, Abingdon
4 PM Citizen science at Abbey Meadow
6 PM Film screening + Q&A at Bridge House
Film screening (18mins), dialogue
& water quality monitoring
Sep 30th afternoon
Henley-on-Thames
In front of River & Rowing Museum
Partners: Thames21 and River & Rowing Museum
Local Stories
Oct 3rd 6-7:30 PM
Windsor & Eton
The Swan, 9 Mill Lane (SL4 5JG)
Local stories and Drinkable Thames in community pub the Swan in historic Windsor hosted by Will & Rebecca Calvert and the Windsor & Eton brewery.
Water testing
Oct 4th 9-10AM
Windsor & Eton
Water testing through citizen science near the Windsor Eton bridge and if possible (and desirable) a dip in the Thames with local cold water swimmer Rebecca.
Lunch
Oct 4th 12AM
Wraysbury
Meet for a lunch for all those
who join the walk.
Co-organised by Active 360
and Talking Tree.
Walk, Potluck and Citizen Science
Oct 5th 9 AM at Laleham
11:30 AM at Weybridge
Community conversation
Kingston Hive, Oct 5th 6-7:30 PM
Join our community conversation about the value of the compass of a drinkable Thames.
Talking Drinkable Thames
Oct 6th
Kew Bridge, W4 3NG
A community conversation with paddlers, swimmers, anglers, rowers, canoers and walkers of the Thames.
Film screening (18mins) + panel
Oct 9th 6-8 PM
London
Partner + venue: School of Design University of the Arts – London
Closing Event
Oct 17th, 4-7 PM
Dutch Embassy, London
Gratitude to our partners who help us organising the different events
Team
Li An Phoa
Maarten van der Schaaf
About Drinkable Rivers
When we will have drinkable rivers again it will be an indicator that we live healthy and in balance. All our actions on the land and in the water will contribute to this. As we are all dependent on fresh water all around the world and we are all part of watersheds, the drinkable river could be a societal compass for the 21st century that can guide us in the direction of health and that can mobilise all of us.
Media
Images from Nicolas Boisclair, Gabriel Tetro, Mike Wong and Ryan Erless. Edited by Alfa Lee.
A movie from Thom Verheul, creative commons 2020 Stichting Drinkable Rivers
Henley Standard
Read
Ashton Keynes & Leigh Newsletter – October 2023
Read
Watershed moments
Resurgence & Ecologist
Discover
Lewis Pugh Foundation
Discover
Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard
Read
Time & Leisure
Read
British Dental Journal
Read
Book
The English edition of our book is now available.
Get your copy at your local book store,
or get the e-book via Kobo, Kindle or your favourite e-book store.
For larger orders, please contact us directly.
Drinkable RiversTM CC 
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License